To get to the Carrollton Festival at the Switchyard I rode my bike to the Arapaho Red Line DART station – hung my bike on the transit hook and rode downtown (as always, I was a minute late, missed my train, and was twenty minutes late downtown – I need to cut that crap out), met a friend, and we then rode the Green line out to Carrollton. It would have been quicker to drive my car down Beltline (to get anywhere in Dallas you start out driving down Beltline Road) – but then I would have had to find a place to park, plus there is a lot of freedom and flexibility in having a bicycle. With a bicycle and a DART pass – I can go anywhere.
At any rate, heading back downtown, waiting for the train, I had the time to look around at the artwork on the Carrollton station. To my uneducated, ignorant, and untrained eye, DART has done an admirable job of adding artwork to its train stations – at least as far as a giant government bureaucracy can be expected to go. Maybe I should do some blog entries on some of my favorites….
At the Carrollton station – elevated high in the air (cool view from up there) over where I suppose the old switching yard might have been, I noticed all these little windows cut into the concrete pillars supporting the roof structure. In each window was an old photograph combined with, or framed by, pieces of found metal. It made for a series of interesting and entertaining collages. The time spent waiting for the train was reduced by me dashing up and down, looking into the little windows at the parade of aged faces and arranged fragments of history.
Later, at home, an internet search led me quickly to the artist, James Michael Starr. Although, he seems to be unhappy with the initial installation – everything seems to have worked out and his collages are there for the enjoyment of the unwashed masses. The bits of metal seem to be mostly artifacts that the artist was able to dig up around the area, now on display, high in the air… forever waiting for the next train.
Collage by James Michael Starr, Carrollton DART station.
Collage by James Michael Starr, Carrollton DART station.
Collage by James Michael Starr, Carrollton DART station.
Collage by James Michael Starr, Carrollton DART station.
Bill Chance 
Bill:
Thanks for your thoughtful post about my public art installation at the Downtown Carrollton Station. It’s quite a nice surprise to have stumbled upon it, kind of like finding the observations someone pinned to a bulletin board after digging up the shoebox I’d buried in a park years earlier.
Yes, working with DART had its high points and its low, low points. Because of an unfortunate communication breakdown with the construction crew, they were about to close down my project without installing the art. Thanks to D publishing my piece about it, but more importantly the gracious intervention of the people of Carrollton, DART agreed to let me finish.
But overall the experience of planning and executing the project, which took over five years, was an honor and a pleasure. In fact, here’s an idea: I’m a blogger myself, and I wonder if you’d be interested in setting up a guest blog arrangement. I could write a piece about my art project in the station for This is Not Going to Turn Out Well, and you could write a piece about whatever for Long.Strange.Trip. Give it some thought.
Jim Starr
Thanks for the comment – it’s cool that you found the entry and didn’t mind me writing about your art.
I’d love a guest blogging arrangement… email me at bill.chance57(at)gmail.com – I’ll post whatever you want me to. I enjoyed looking at your blog – give me a bit to think about it and I’ll send you something.
Sounds great.
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